DAY 71. Carlos Augusto de Miranda e Martins

Master in Communication Sciences

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English:

Carlos graduated in History at the University of São Paulo (USP), master in Communication Sciences from the same university, with an international post-graduation internship at the Center for Advanced Studies of the National University of Cordoba, Argentina. Carlos is also a member of the “Núcleo de Estudos Interdisciplinares sobre o Negro Brasileiro” (NEINB-USP) – Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of the Brazilian afro-descendant – and a member of the Editorial Board of the scientific journal “Multiplicidades”. He is the author of the research called “Racismo Anunciado: o negro e a publicidade no Brasil” (1985-2005) – Announced Racism: Black people in the Brazilian advertisement (1985-2005).

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What is your impression about a brand called Brazil?

Brazil is the country of the past

The title of this report is purposely an opposition to the classic phrase “Brazil is the country of the future”. Although many hopes are deposited in the future, we can realize that structures and cultural traits of the past are still present and strongly rooted in our current days.

I call this text of report because it was written without any concern with methods, quotes or references. It’s just a text, the first non-academic text I’m writing after years, so it may sound a bit confusing.

During my Master’s degree I had the opportunity to undertake an internship at the Center for Advanced Studies of the National University of Cordoba, in Argentina. In the three months I lived in that town, I kept close contact not only with Argentines (which would naturally be expected), but also with a large number of foreigners, mostly Mexican and French, who also developed exchange activities.

As a researcher of themes related to the formation of national identity and culture, I took advantage of that proximity to gather impressions on the perception that those foreign colleagues had of Brazil.

I say “to gather impressions” since I didn’t use any research methodology, nor was my goal to apply questionnaires or bring information to the research developed at the time. It would be more of a curiosity.

Typically, the subject arose naturally, in informal conversations during meals in the accommodations or in between classes. And of those conversations, I could realize that images of a vibrant and exotic Brazil appeared in a recurrent way (and almost unison).

There was much talk (sometimes in a joke tone, also) about the ‘Brazil, the world’s largest “(sic): Brazil has the world’s largest forest, the largest river in the world, the best beaches in the world, the biggest party in the world, the best women in the world, among many others “largest in the world”.

I could notice, also, that this curiosity and admiration were rarely accompanied by minimal knowledge about Brazil, generating surprises and disappointments.

In general, the Amazon rainforest is oversized, occupying more than half of the Brazilian territory. On the other hand, the urban areas and industrial/technological development were virtually ignored. The beaches, the carnival and the women were exalted. The rest did not matter.

Such ignorance was also applied to the population issue. Once, when I said that in Brazil 50% of the population was composed of black people and African descendants, everyone in the conversation looked at me surprised, affirming their beliefs that the Brazilian population would have 80% or 90% of black people.

This moment is emblematic and contrasts sharply with the way the Brazilians, or rather, with the way the representations about the country are forged by Brazilian elites. If for those foreigners Brazil was a country of a black majority, marked by diversity, for the Brazilian elites Brazil is a white country.

In advertising, in the soap operas, in the movies, in textbooks, to sum up, in all areas of symbolic representation the participation of black people (and Indigenous people) is decreased, disregarded, undervalued, so they do not reflect the reality of the population, nor the historical and cultural importance of these people in the conformation of Brazil we have today.

While the images that my foreign colleagues had in Brazil are similar to reports that navigators and travelers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries made of the Terra brasilis (“Brazilian Land”), social representations forged by elites bring us back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when there was hope to see progress and a racial-ethnic conformation aligned to European standards.

So, I think that Brazil as a brand is a cultural product disconnected from reality, in other words, the “brand Brazil” is far from representing the streets of Brazil, the countryside of Brazil, the “real” Brazil or close to real. What we have is a representation of Brazil which reflects the way a minority of the population sees (or want to see) the country.